The Missing & The Lost
by PomApple
Summary: An alternate take on the end of Issue #1. What if Irma and Hay Lin had been pulled through the portal, and what if, despite knowing that, Will still sealed it with them on the other side? How will she live with that decision? And how can she stop being a mess long enough for the residents of Heatherfield to stop suspecting she's involved with her classmates' disappearance?
1. Chapter 1

Will hadn't been able to sleep at all that night, not with the memories of monsters, magic, and portals flying through her head, reminding her of what had happened. What had just happened. She tried, of course, to convince herself that none of it had been real, that it was only a really bad dream, but in the end she couldn't deny the things she remembered seeing, smelling, feeling.

And when she got out of bed, a dread had firmly nestled itself in her stomach. Today she was going to have to tell the other girls what had happened, and even if they did believe her, Will was afraid of what their reactions would be. They'd blame her, she was sure of it. It had all been her fault, after all. She'd closed the portal. She'd closed it too soon.

Will slowly stumbled through her morning routine and placated her mother's worries with a few brief sentences about nightmares and how she wasn't going to watch another horror movie for a while.

"Make sure the zombies don't get you!" her mother called after her jokingly as she left for work. Will weakly smiled in response, and the second she heard her mother's car drive away the tears started to fall down her face. The monsters hadn't gotten her; but she'd let them get her friends.

She finished her breakfast and went back to bed.

The doorbell rang around four in the afternoon, and by then Will had recovered enough to leave her bed. That all went out the window, though, when she opened the door and saw Cornelia.

Cornelia's smile was quickly replaced by a look of concern. "You really do look sick," she said and it was all Will could do to nod. Cornelia held out some paper for her. "I brought you your homework. Thought that'd cheer you up."

"Thanks," Will mumbled and took the papers.

"You know…" Cornelia began, but let her voice trail as she appeared to rethink what to say. Since she wasn't about to leave and Will didn't want to look her in the eye, Will started to look through the sheets of homework. Math problems, a short story to read, an assignment about medieval-

"How are you feeling?" Cornelia had decided to go on easy on her, and Will felt a little relieved.

"Awful."

"What time did you get home last night?" Or maybe she hadn't.

"... Irma and Hay Lin didn't go to school today, did they?" Will asked, cutting to the point as she imagined Cornelia wanted to. And, indeed, when her eyes met Cornelia's there was a bit of approval in those blue eyes.

There was also worry, and a kind of harshness Will was afraid of. She'd seen how those jerks yesterday had run when Cornelia arrived on the scene, and where she was from guys rarely ever ran away from girls.

"You you three were going to meet Elyon at the gym, but she said none of you showed up."

The papers nearly slipped out of Will's hand. "What? She said that?"

"Yes, she did. You were the last ones to see them, weren't you, Will?" Cornelia asked, and the calmness of her voice made Will even more fearful of her eventual reaction to the story she had to tell.

Will stepped back so Cornelia could come in, and Cornelia's eyebrows raised with surprise. "It's a long story," she explained meekly. "And you might want to sit down."

For an uncertain moment, Cornelia looked between Will and the open door but in the end she entered the building. She made to take off her jacket, but changed her mind at the last minute.

"It's cold in here," she commented as she briefly surveyed the room, then turned back to Will. "Are you running a fever?"

Will's face twisted a little at having to admit a lie. "I'm not sick Cornelia. I'm just… I needed time alone to think."

Cornelia stared at Will for a second, and Will swore she could almost see her piecing things together behind her blue eyes. Cornelia nodded slowly, then turned around and returned to surveying the room.

"This way to the living room, right?" Cornelia said, already opening the correct door before she'd even gotten a reply. That said, there was only one door to really choose from. Will didn't live in a big place; with just her and her mother there was no need.

"Yeah…" Will followed Cornelia. She wondered if she'd be feeling so small and docile in her own house if it had been Taranee who'd come instead of Cornelia. While Will didn't have any reason to dislike Cornelia, she did feel a better, friendlier connection with Taranee.

There was only one couch, so Will sat down next to Cornelia who was already picking something off her skirt. And just as soon as she'd sat down, Will stood up again and made some excuse about making tea; an excuse that Cornelia saw right through.

"I'm not thirsty," Cornelia said, her voice still frighteningly calm. "And if you're not sick, then I don't mind keeping you from your tea." She turned to Will. "I just want to know what happened."

Will wasn't sure what had done it but the second Cornelia looked at her like that the words tumbled inelegantly out of her mouth. "It was this monster - two of them! - And they, they - They attacked us and-" Seeing some obvious confusion break through Cornelia's calm composure, Will added desperately, "Hay Lin's grandmother was right, Cornelia! It isn't just a some story, or a prank, or - the, the story about the Heart of - the Heart of Candrawhatsit and the monsters and the… veil…" Will let her words die off, not only because she suddenly felt exhausted from finally vocalising what had happened, but also because Cornelia had stiffened and was leaning away from her, a very skeptical and very distasteful look having overtaken her previous poker face.

And before she could stop herself, tears started to gather in Will's eyes, threatening to fall down her face. She buried her face in the palms of her hands, trying to hide from feeling like a right idiot. Cornelia didn't believe her. She should have known. Cornelia didn't believe her and now she thought she was crazy.

Taking opportunity of the silence, Cornelia cleared her throat and said, surprisingly diplomatically (Will had been expecting a scolding), "Your face looks really red. You should get some more sleep."

Not trusting herself to speak again, Will nodded. For extra measure, she quickly wiped her eyes and looked at Cornelia, intending to make sure the other girl saw her response, but Cornelia wasn't looking at Will anymore. She was staring at something across the room with a frown on her face.

"Why is your phone unplugged?" she asked, a tone of accusation finally surfacing in her voice.

"Oh…" Will stared at the landline too, having a little trouble recalling something that wasn't related to her friends' disappearance. She honestly couldn't remember unplugging the phone. "I don't know. I was asleep all day… I… I think I remember it ringing, though…"

"Hmm…" Cornelia hummed to herself thoughtfully in a way that brought the nervousness right back to Will's bones. Cornelia heightened the feeling by adding. "Irma's father rang my house this morning. He's ringing everyone."

Will didn't say anything in response. She just shrank further into herself.

Cornelia suddenly gasped, "I'm going to be late," and stood up. Will didn't look at her, or see her out of the house, but she heard it loud and clear when Cornelia added, "You know Irma's father is a cop, right? You're going to want a better story than monsters and magic when he comes to visit you."

The warning echoed long after the sound of Cornelia shutting the door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

Will's mother came home just as it was starting to get dark. She walked towards Will's room and spoke loudly. "Why was the door unlocked?"

"I'm in here," Will called from the living room. She was sitting on the couch and had been trying to get herself lost in her homework before her mother had broken her concentration. Will pulled a face and looked at the clock on the wall and nearly dropped her pen in surprise - she'd never made an attempt at her homework for so long without a break before.

" _Well?_ " came her mother's voice. Will looked over to see her coming through the doorway. "Why was it unlocked?"

"Cornelia came and gave me my homework," Will said, holding up her papers and pen in the air as irrefutable proof. "I just forgot to lock the door after her."

Will's mother looked genuinely surprised at the homework and looked as if she was going to say something, maybe even praise, but a worried look quickly crossed her face. "Please don't forget again," she said as she unhooked her bag from her shoulder. "I don't want some weirdo coming in and kidnapping you."

At first, Will took the comment to be her mother's attempt at a joke, but the worried look remained on her face and the guilt in Will's stomach twisted and grew. She held a paper in front of her face and pretended to be reading it.

Feeling she ought to say something, Will ventured hopefully, "Like a zombie kidnapper?"

No such luck. "I'm serious, Will," her mother said as she made her way towards the kitchen. "Apparently two girls from your school have gone missing."

Despite not wanting to make any sound at all, Will knew she had to say something. After taking in a sharp, silent breath to calm herself, she forced out a rather emotionless, "Oh," and continued to hide behind her homework.

"I guess you don't know them," Will's mother continued as she opened and shut drawers, cupboards, and finally the refrigerator. "Of course, it might not be a kidnapping - god forbid it _is_ \- but I don't want you taking any chances anyway. If you're not coming home straight away after school tomorrow, please call me and let me know what you're doing. If your friends invite you to do something, you can still go - please go, actually; I'd rather you were in a group rather than on your own - but just let me know about it first, okay?"

"Okay mum," Will responded with a voice as bland as before, still hiding and still trying to bury her feelings under papers and papers of numbers and words.

Will couldn't really muster up the energy to feel hungry, so she only picked at her dinner that evening. When her mother had deemed that she'd eaten enough, Will was finally allowed to go into her room to 'finish her homework'. She didn't have any energy for that either, and just stared at the papers blankly for a few moments before finally giving up and deciding to go to bed instead.

Half an hour later, her mother knocked at her bedroom door briefly before opening it while calling out, "Will? Will, there's someone here - oh, sorry, I didn't know you were sleeping."

The truth was that Will hadn't been asleep, at all, but she still looked and moved like someone woken prematurely from their slumber, all groggy and sluggish. But despite truly appearing to be unwell, her mother insisted that she come into the living room and talk with the policeman who had arrived. "It'll only take a moment," her mother reassured her.

Will looked at the policeman's puggish nose, his greying hair, his loose tie, and his slightly askew badge - but she couldn't manage to look him in the eyes. She didn't listen to attentively to his brief self-introduction; after all, Cornelia had already told her everything she needed to know hours earlier.

Irma's father was a cop and he was looking for her.

Will sunk into her couch as much as the piece of furniture would let her. Neither adult present had the heart to tell an unwell child to sit straighter.

Wisely, she didn't tell Irma's father the same story she'd told Cornelia. Instead, all she said was, "I don't know what happened to her. Or Hay Lin." And in a way, she felt that was the truth.

"Please, Will," Irma's father said to her, and Will could feel him pleading with every bone in his body. "Elyon says you were the last one who saw them. You must know what happened."

And against her better conscience, Will continued to say, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what happened."

Eventually, Irma's father resigned to defeat with a sad sigh and Will had to look away from him, far away. She looked longingly at the hallway door, wanting to badly to go back to bed and curl up and hide from everything.

Then Irma's father spoke again, but this time his voice was much more even in tone and he sounded like a real cop. "I came here today as Irma's father, and I'll probably come here again - on duty - to sort out the facts," he said. Will picked up the warning tone from his voice, and that said the warning wasn't hostile in any way, shape, or form. It was just a simple fact. He added, "You and Elyon seem to be the best leads we have right now."

Will wasn't sure how exactly she was supposed to respond to that, but a tired, "Yes sir," came out of her mouth before she knew it, and the policeman received it with a nod of his head.

"I'm sorry to keep you up when you need your sleep," he said to Will. "I hope you get better soon." Then he turned to Will's mother and continued, "I'm sorry for coming over so late. Thank you for your time."

And soon enough he was gone.

Will stood to go back to her room, but her mother's voice quickly cut through the air and stopped her.

"Wait."

The words paralysed her. Will didn't have it in her to turn around, only listen to what her mother wanted to say.

"I thought you said you didn't know the girls who went missing."

"I don't," Will responded weakly. "Not really."

"Then how are you the last one who saw them?"

Will shrugged. Her mother didn't accept that as an answer.

"I mean it, Will. I remember that on that night you told me you were going to come home late because you were going to hang out with some new friends."

"I'm tired, mum!" Will suddenly snapped, not at all in control of what she was saying or how she was saying it. She shouted her words with all the strength of the pain she'd been carrying around. "Can't you interrogate me later?!"

There was a dead silence hanging thick in the air. Will took a long moment to recognise the shock on her mother's face and when she finally did it felt like a tidal wave of embarrassment had knocked her over.

She stormed out of the room, but couldn't escape her mother's high-pitched, near-screech of a voice. "Okay! Tomorrow it is!"


	3. Chapter 3

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"In a surprising twist of fortune, Will's mother had to rush off to work the next morning due to some kind of emergency. She only had time to greet her daughter and remind her in a stern, but somewhat frazzled voice, that the two were going to have a chat tonight. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh, don't look so down," her mother said as she picked up her keys and a few other things. "We'll talk about other, nicer stuff too."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will didn't really believe that the ratio her mother had apparently planned out would match what they would actually talk about. Still, she didn't fight or resist; she just sat at the table, eating her breakfast. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Exhaustion had defeated whatever blend of memory and fantasy had been haunting Will, and she'd finally gotten more than a few hours of sleep. And, thanks to that, Will now had a better grasp on what she ought to do. The first thing she realised she ought to do - and this was something that was embarrassingly obvious in hindsight - was talk to the woman who, in her eyes, this whole magic thing had started with: Yan Lin, Hay Lin's grandmother. Because despite Cornelia's skepticism, despite what logic and reasoning and years of schooling had taught her, Will knew that what had happened that night had been real. There really had been monsters and a portal./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will stared at one of the kitchen windows, trying to catch a glimpse of the reflection she'd seen days earlier; the special version of her who was taller, fuller, and had spritely wings sprouting from her back. Right now, all she saw was herself, just the everyday Wilhelmina Vandom, but that didn't matter for she knew that the other Will was just as real as the one she saw./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""... I need help," Will muttered with a sigh. She shook her head and started to clear her plate - and almost dropped her plate when she heard a peculiar voice respond./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Of course you do! You're going to be late for school!"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will screamed and jumped and feverishly looked around her kitchen for the source of the voice. It hadn't sounded like her mother, thank god, but it certainly hadn't sounded familiar either. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Who are you?!"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""To your right."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will spun to her right./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Too far. Go a bit more left."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will blindly obeyed, but all she saw in front of her was the refrigerator and the odd pictures and papers her mother had already stuck to the front of it with an assorted collection of mismatching magnets. Will's mind immediately went to the monsters from the other night, but it quickly left them when she remembered that none of them had sounded like a woman whereas this voice certainly did./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Congratulations!" the voice said dryly. "I'm right in front of you."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No you're not," Will responded quite adamantly while her mind scrambled around, trying to remember exactly how she'd been able to call forth Heart of Kandrakar last time. "Unless you're inside the fridge."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Excuse me," the voice suddenly snapped. "I prefer the term refrigerator. Fridge sounds so lower-class, you know." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will froze, staring in horror at the refrigerator in front of her, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape. Then she started shaking her head, her red bangs falling back and forth in front of her eyes. The entire time she muttered, "No, no, no."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"yes, yes, yes/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;", actually," the refrigerator responded in a voice that conveyed the right amount of mockery without sacrificing any of its haughtiness. "I can talk. Or rather, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"you/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" can hear me."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will carefully set down her plate, and the second it was sat on the safety of the table, she bolted out of the room, and when she heard another voice call out, "What's going on over there?" she ran to where her house keys hang from a hook, grabbed them, and bolted out of her house even faster than she had the kitchen./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She didn't turn around to look at her house until she was out on the footpath, and that was when Will realised that she hadn't locked the door behind her. It took a moment for her to weigh up the two options available to her, and in the end the fear of her mother's wrath and coming home and finding the house unlocked far outweighed a talking refrigerator. Will approached her house slowly, ready and any moment to turn on her heels and run - and when she'd finished locking the front door that's exactly what she did. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will ran and ran for a good couple of blocks before she let herself stop./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"~*~/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Silver Dragon was warm and smelled pleasantly of aromas and flavours foreign to Will's nose. She had only eaten Chinese food in the form of takeaways before, back in Fadden Hills when her parents were too tired to cook after a day at work, and the memory saddened her a little. They were never too tired to do other things, she thought bitterly. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was almost noon now. It had taken Will some time to work up the courage to walk into the restaurant, and once she'd done that it had taken her even more time to find her bearings and make her way to where she wanted to go. The lunch hour rush was starting to begin, and Will absolutely looked out of place as the only school-aged child in a building full of adults. She didn't have to wait all that long for someone to come up to her and asked,/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Um, shouldn't you be in school?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm looking for Yan Lin," Will said, and the young man talking to her frowned. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Okay… but shouldn't you be in school?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I want to talk to Yan Lin," Will repeated, her annoyance leaking out into her tone of voice and followed up with the most unconvincing lie she'd said all year, "I'm too sick to go to school."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The young man also looked very annoyed, and very unimpressed, but before he could escort her out of the restaurant like Will no doubt thought he was about to do, an old, frail voice came out from further behind him./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's okay, Yao," said a small, old lady. "I wish to talk to her to."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yan Lin patted the young man on the arm - she was too short to reach his shoulder without it looking silly. Yao still didn't look at all pleased with what was happening, and tried to protest./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We can't have her playing truant in here-"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Then she and I will go for a walk," Yan Lin countered in a chipper voice, then said something else in what Will guessed was Chinese. There was something odd about it, how Yan Lin spoke with a soft voice, but at times the words she said sounded hard and harsh, but whatever she had said to the young man made him turn away./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yan Lin approached Will and motioned to the door. "Come," she said. "We cannot waste anymore time."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"~*~/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"To say it was a relief to finally speak to someone who understood was a massive understatement. But, despite that relief, there also came a heavy feeling of dread; what had happened had really happened. The monsters had been real, and so was the lost of two of the Guardians./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yan Lin had been surprisingly calm as Will told the story, and even as she mentioned sealing the portal despite Irma and Hay Lin being on the other side, all the former guardian did was nod slowly as she listened. However, Will couldn't help but notice a sadness in Yan Lin's eyes - and guilt she already held doubled./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The two hadn't walked far. Yan Lin had asked that they stop at a nearby park and sit there to talk. The only other people present were a couple of mothers walking around with their preschool-aged children and they were too busy to notice the odd pairing of a young teenager and an old lady who looked nothing alike./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"When the story was over, Yan Lin looked up at the sky and said somewhat pensively, "It never ends well when the guardians are separated."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Has it happened before?" Will asked./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yan Lin looked at her and her head dipped slightly. "Yes. In a way."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How did you get back together?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We didn't."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will's heart jumped to her throat and she must have had a dire look on her face for Yan Lin smiled and assured her, "Don't look so glum. The situation was/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" very/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" different. None of us could bring Cassidy back, but there's still a chance for you to reunite with Hay Lin and Irma."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will could still see the sadness in Yan Lin's eyes, but she had sounded confident and comforting nonetheless. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How do I do it?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yan Lin chuckled. "First of all, you must stop thinking like that. You are a part of a team, Will. Leader's rarely get far by acting alone. Find Taranee and Cornelia and convince them to join you. Then," Yan Lin reached into her wide sleeves and pulled out an old, worn piece of paper that was rolled up and tied with a neat bow. She continued speaking as she unraveled the paper, "you must go through one of the portals to Kandrakar."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That's a map," Will murmured as she looked down at the paper. Even though she was new to this town, she definitely recognised the drawings as a map, and slowly realised that it was a map of Heatherfield. "Does it show the portals?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""When they appear, yes," Yan Lin answered. "It seems that right now there are none, which is rather fortunate and unfortunate at the same time. You have more time to rally the other two guardians to your side, but…" Yan Lin's voice drifted off with a forlorn sigh./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""... the longer I stay here, the longer Irma and Hay Lin are stuck in Kandrakar," Will finished the sentence. It was the lump in her stomach, the source of her guilt - of course she knew the downside to her actions. "At least they have each other."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A couple of tears rolled down Yan Lin's face and when she turned to Will there was no more warmth or confidence in her voice. In an instant, Yan Lin truly looked like the little frail old woman that she was. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm old, Will, and I will soon be gone," Yan Lin said with brutal honestly that cut through Will's heart. "And I fear that I'll never see my baby Hay Lin again."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will put her arms around Yan Lin's shoulders and gave her a quick hug. "I promise I'll bring her back. I'll bring both of them back."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Please hurry."/span/p 


	4. Chapter 4

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Now it was Yan Lin's pleading voice that echoed through Will's head as she moved throughout the day rather than Cornelia's warning or even the looming thought of a 'proper' talk with Irma's father. * She walked Yan Lin back to her family's restaurant, then wandered aimlessly around the streets for a half hour or so, checking her new map every five minutes, until she noticed a passerby giving her an unsavoury look as she spoke on the phone./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A police car pulled up beside Will as she was walking home./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What are you doing out of school?" asked one of the two policemen inside. Thankfully, neither of them were Irma's father. They both looked skinnier than him and their hair wasn't dulled with age./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will paused for a moment and stared like a deer caught in the headlights, and then she all-too-late conjured up a fake cough and spluttered, "I'm sick."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The policeman cocked an eyebrow and followed up with another question, "Then why aren't you at home?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I wanted to buy something."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What did you buy?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""A…" Will racked her brain for a convincing answer, but didn't have anything on her person that looked convincing. "An ice cream."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're sick and you left the comfort of your home to buy an ice cream?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will shrugged. "The stomach wants what the stomach wants." She didn't believe for a moment that the officer believed her lies, but she saw no other choice before her other than sticking with her story. Or maybe making a run for it, but that didn't sound like an idea that would end well for her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Is your mother home right now?" The officer hadn't paused for even a second in his questioning./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No. She's at work," Will answered, and upon seeing the other officer /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"tut-tut-tut/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" at her answer, she hastily added, "She trusts me to look after myself."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Whether she trusts you or not, it's recently gotten dangerous for young girls to walk around by themselves," the first officer said. He nodded behind him and said, "Jump in and we'll give you a ride home."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will looked between him and the door. She briefly thought again about making a run for it - she was new here and there was no way they knew her name or address - but just the thought alone exhausted her, so Will looked down at the ground as she walked over to the car and opened the back door. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Predictably, the officers asked her even more questions once they started driving and Will continued to answer as vaguely with as little information as she could. Where did her mother work? Some IT company Will couldn't remember the name of. Did she have a phone number they could call? Only one for a cellphone that was usually switched off except for break times. Was the house locked and did Will have some keys on her? Of course it was and of course she did./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Had anyone suspicious approached Will at all today while she was out walking on her own?/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No," Will responded quickly for fear of pausing for too long. "You're the only people who have talked to me today."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"They dropped her off within five minutes, and after Will begrudgingly gave them her mother's cellphone number they walked her up to the door of her house and left after she'd clearly gotten inside safely and they'd given her another warning about wandering outside alone while sick./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will had quietly thanked them, and despite trying to not show how surprised she was at them letting her off the hook, the surprise was written all over her face anyway and one officer chuckled while one grinned and said, "We were young once too, you know. Just don't make a habit of this 'getting sick'."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I won't," Will said, and the officer's took her word for it since she'd so far revealed herself to be a rather awful liar. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The door shut and the house was very, very quiet. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A little hungry, Will started to wander into the kitchen, and the second she stepped inside the room and saw the fridge, she turned right around and walked out again, telling herself that she wasn't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"that/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" hungry./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Besides, she had more important things than food on her mind. Will sat down on the living room couch, took the folded up map from her pocket and checked it again for any signs of a portal./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Still, nothing had shown itself yet./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"~*~/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"With nothing she could do until school had finished for the day, Will spent a lot of time pacing around the living room, pretending she couldn't hear the appliances talking to her, and thinking hard about how exactly she was going to convince Taranee and Cornelia to follow her into Kandrakar./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Of course, first she was going to have to admit that she'd sealed the portal with them on the other side, and that, Will felt, was going to be the hardest thing to tell them. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She roughly calculated in her head how long it would take to walk to Taranee's house, and left as soon as she could, a little on edge about the possibility of Irma's father and his policeman friends coming to interview her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Fate was on her side, apparently, since not only did Will not see a single policeman as she walked over to Taranee's house, she actually caught sight of her new friend on the street. Will called over to her right away as she jogged over. "Taranee! Taranee, I need to talk to you!"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Taranee also quickened her pace, walking towards Will, calling back, "Will? What is it?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once the two were in real talking distance of each other, the both started saying things a mile a minute at the same time, Will saying, "There's something I really, really have to talk to you about. About what Hay Lin's grandmother told us the other day," while Taranee said, "I heard you were sick. Shouldn't you be inside? You look awful."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Then, still in good synchronisation with each other, Will and Taranee fell silent and the same time, but only for a short moment before again speaking at the same time, apologising for their interruptions and asking the other to speak first./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Usually, Will would insist that the other person speak first, but she knew time wasn't on her side, so she quickly spoke before Taranee decided to do the same. "I'm fine," Will said, quickly getting the question of her health out of the way. "But I need to talk to you about the story Hay Lin's grandmother told us."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""About the Heart and the elements and so on?" Taranee asked, her eyes ever so slightly lighting up. Will picked up on that, and that Taranee's mouth had slightly turned up at the corners./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You believe in it, don't you?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Taranee nodded. "Strange things have been happened to me for a while now. As much as having magical powers doesn't make sense - it kind of /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"does/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" make more sense than anything else."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Taranee!" Will exclaimed as she grabbed her friend lightly by the shoulders and locked her eyes with her. "The portals are real too! I saw one with Irma and Hay Lin the other night and -"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And there was a monster there, right?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How… had a did you know that?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Cornelia said you told her that last night when she dropped off your homework." Taranee frowned. "Are you alright, Will? You look really pale."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm… It's just - Cornelia told you? She didn't seem like she believed me…"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Taranee shook her head. "She doesn't. Well, she says she doesnt, but from the way she's been talking…" Taranee's voice trailed off and she fell silent./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""From the way she's been talking…?" Will prompted, desperate to know how that sentence ended./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't really know her that well, but she's been asking me all day about the day we heard the story from Hay Lin's grandmother. It sounds like, deep down, she believes too, but she's having a hard time accepting it. I mean," Taranee paused to giggle a little, something that sounded a little awkward in the end, "It does sound pretty crazy. Us having magical powers, saving the world…"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Talking to refrigerators," Will added with a half-awkward giggle of her own./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Taranee laughed properly now. "You did what?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's true! My refrigerator told me I was going to be late to school!"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I swear I've been hearing what everyone's thinking!" Taranee said, grasping Will's own shoulders and beaming as she confessed the strange, secret things that had started happening in her own life. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The two gushed for half a minute more, soaking in the shared experience they couldn't have shared with almost anyone else - and then Will remembered the urgency of their situation, and of the other two guardians. The high was gone in an instant and her face became very solemn./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Irma and Hay Lin are in Kandrakar," Will said. The sudden change in her expression and voice caught Taranee off guard and it would take a moment or two for the words to sink in, but even though she realised this, Will kept on speaking, getting out as much information as she could before she got distracted again. "They're trapped there. We have to find a portal, crossover, find them, and bring them back."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will watched a few different emotions flitter across Taranee's face and behind her eyes, the most prominent ones being confusion, concern, and Will swore she saw some calculation in there too./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait a moment, a portal? To Kandrakar?" Taranee repeated for confirmation and when Will nodded, she added, "I remember Hay Lin's grandmother mentioning rips or holes in the veil, or something like that."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That's what they are. And look -" Will reached into her pocket for the folded up map and hastily unfolded it and held it out flat for Taranee to see. "I got this map from Hay Lin's grandmother earlier today. She said the portals will show up on the map when they appear."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So… there's currently no portals," Taranee murmured as she looked closer at the map. "If we're closing them, then who's opening them?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""The monsters on the other side," Will answered immediately, and then, realising the haste in her answer, she tried to correct herself. "I mean, the blue one I saw the other night probably didn't - he seemed too much like... a fighter? - but he's probably working for whoever's behind the portals."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Taranee took a step back and let out a long breath of air as she looked up at the sky. "The next question is to ask why they'd do such a thing? I can't remember if Yan Lin said anything about that or not."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Will shrugged. "Me neither. I guess they want to invade earth with darkness or whatever it is bad guys do?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hmm…" Taranee looked very thoughtful, and it was in a way that was hard for Will to read. Granted, her old 'friends' back at Fadden Hills weren't really the deep thinking kind, nor was anyone else she knew. The expression on Taranee's face was completely new to her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""In any case," Taranee said, suddenly snapping out of whatever thoughts she'd started wandering among, "we can't do anything until a portal shows up, right?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well," Will said reluctantly. "Yan Lin said the three of us still need to go in together. We need to convince Cornelia to come with us."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Taranee smiled weakly. "It's just as well whoever's opening the portals is taking their time."/span/p 


End file.
